Action / Adventure / Animation / Family / Fantasy

Synopsis

Young Mary Katherine (M.K.) returns to her eccentric scientist father's home, but his all-consuming quest to discover a tiny civilization in the neighboring forest drives them apart. However, M.K. soon finds herself shrunken down by Queen Tara of that forest who was mortally wounded by the putrefying Boggans, and charged to deliver a pod bearing the new Queen to safety. Together with a veteran Leafman warrior, two goofy mollusks and a young maverick, M.K. agrees to help. As the villainous Boggan leader, Mandrake closes in, M.K. and her new friends must draw on the best of themselves together and discover what they have to save their world.

Young Mary Katherine (M.K.) returns to her eccentric scientist father's home, but his all-consuming quest to discover a tiny civilization in the neighboring forest drives them apart. However, M.K. soon finds herself shrunken down by Queen Tara of that forest who was mortally wounded by the putrefying Boggans, and charged to deliver a pod bearing the new Queen to safety. Together with a veteran Leafman warrior, two goofy mollusks and a young maverick, M.K. agrees to help. As the villainous Boggan leader, Mandrake closes in, M.K. and her new friends must draw on the best of themselves together and discover what they have to save their world.

Movie Reviews

Left feeling short changed.

Having had the time to attend our local cinema to indulge in the latest
computer animated feature, 'Epic', I was looking forward to it, having
viewed the likes of 'Wreck it Ralph'.

Epic starts off like all others, the introduction of a family, the
family pet and an adventure. Great I thought, but I was let down with
the slow build up and out-dated humour. The story surrounds a girl who
stays with her father who is on the verge of a major discovery of small
people living in the forest. The father who comes across as eccentric
and focused primarily on discovering this other world neglects his
daughter only to realise the error of his ways later on. The daughter
who commands the attention decides to pack up and leave only to be
dragged literally into the world of the forest people who are small and
are facing an enemy.

Without giving a lot away, I found this feature to be primarily aimed
at smaller children and not beyond those in their teens. The humour was
disappointing as there was nothing there to keep the adults amused.

If you are looking for visually driven films this has it, apart from
that I was left feeling short-changed.

Reviewed by p-stepien7 / 10

No surprises not detrimental to satisfaction

The pretty standard stuff of elfish lore, where magical faerie folk
protect the woods and the life enclosed inside. Led by the Queen Tara (
voiced in English-language version by Beyoncé Knowles) the minuscule
forest inhabitants guard the essence of creation from the destructive
appetite of the agents of blight - creatures called Boggans - and their
malevolent leader, Mandrake (Christoph Waltz). These forces of good are
led by the seasoned warrior Ronin (Colin Farrell), who together with
his elven battalion mount hummingbird steeds. His special protégé is
independent-minded brash Nod (Josh Hutcherson), who disregards
structure and rules. However, each faerie Leafman must become a part of
a bigger tree, in order for the forest to survive. Especially now, when
a rare astronomical occurrence brings about the necessity to name a new
queen, chosen through the use of a magical bud. This ceremony is
disrupted by the onslaught of Mandrake's forces. Meanwhile a somewhat
crazed and estranged Professor Bomba (Jason Sudeikis) seeks proof of
little green forest men residing in the woods, much to the distraught
of his only daughter Mary Katherine (or as she prefers to be known
M.K.) (Amanda Seyfried), who moves in grieving after the death of her
mother.

What can I say say? I love me some faeries and the magical allure of
nature. Here "Epic" delivers with aplomb the visual feasts of an
enchanted forest coupled with ages-old tales of combat between good and
evil - or as portrayed here as a conflict between life and decay. The
obvious flaw to be pointed out is the generic and predictable
storyline, which delivers essentially what was to be expected, failing
to really instill any sense of novelty. With some well-placed humour,
thankfully low on the adult kind and more focused on family laughs,
"Epic" does however deliver on its base promise: offering entertainment
for both adults and children. Visually appeasing with some engaging
story lines, apt for parents or simply for adults looking for a good
time, are sure to be satisfied by the magical light-hearted tones, just
perfect for disassociating yourselves from the mundanity of everyday
life.

Some fault can also be found in a somewhat underwhelming formation of
characters, mostly feeling like poorly fleshed out cardboard cutouts
with only the touching relationship between father and daughter really
hitting home. Some of the secondary characters are just poorly
conceived comedic relief (like the slug and the snail), while the
overall story seems somewhat overloaded given the running time.
Especially the character of Nod seems to be a missed concept, as he
fails to have enough structure to really develop any relationship with
either Ronin or M.K., thus adding a certain sense of superfluousity to
his role in the movie. Nonetheless, the underlying weaknesses fail to
prove detrimental from family viewing, making it a rewatchable feast
for the eyes and imagination, without ever truly hitting classic
animation territory.

Reviewed by Spencer Higham8 / 10

WOW! Epic is the perfect family movie for everyone in a summer filled with sequels, superheroes, and big-budget films.

Epic is about a smart, spirited, and headstrong 17 year-old, teenager named Mary Katherine "M.K." who, after the death of her mother, moves back to live with her estranged father, Professor Bomba, along with her pet dog, Ozzy. Bomba has long studied a group of warriors who live in the forest and protect it as guardians of good. He often will go into the forest and survey them. She, like every other human in the movie, doesn't believe in all the stuff her father has devoted particularly his life to. She loses patience with him and his stories and their reunion is all but a disaster. One day, the professor does not return from a hike in the forest, so Mary Katherine sets out to look for him. Hours later, she comes upon a group of glowing, falling leaves. Catching one of them, she is suddenly shrunken down. In her minuscule state, she discovers the group of warriors Prof. Bomba has studied, who are known as the Leaf-Men. When she is forced to reside with the Leaf-Men, she gains a new perspective and developed friendships with everyone in the forest. To find her way home, M.K. must do than believe in this world; she'll help to save it from the Boggans and their ruthless, villainous leader Mandrake. This is a story about betrayal, sacrifice, friendship, love, bravery, courage, and caring for something else rather than yourself.

The acting is really superb and all the actors have great chemistry together: Amanda Seyfried, Josh Hutcherson, Christoph Waltz, Colin Farrell, Aziz Ansari, and Jason Sudekis are terrific, while Beyonce is the best of all. She is a real acting triumph in the film, and her performance is so critical in the film, as Queen Tara will do anything to ensure the safety of the forest and the lives of her friends, and that she leaves M.K. a very important mission to do her behalf when she couldn't. She brings a lot of integrity, passion, and heart to her role and helps carry the film with spectacular grace.

There's a lot to love about the film, including its production design, visual artistry, and the 3D, which are as dazzling, grand, spectacular, and innovative as, say, Avatar. The 3D is really worth the price of admission; the film features strong emotional depth and an immersive experience that can be greatly experienced in 3D, and the animation, in particular, is terrifically phenomenal and realistic. Danny Elfman did a very good job with the music score as he captured the spirit, excitement, essence, and heart of the film.

With the script written by William Joyce, James V. Hart (Hook, August Rush), Tom J. Astle and Matt Ember (Get Smart), and Daniel Shere, the story's narrative was famillar to other films, but so was Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, How to Train Your Dragon, Hotel Transylvania, and The Croods, and yet, it was cleverly written that it stands out on its own from other films so there's nothing to worry about. They, along with Chris Wedge and the story artists, have aggressively expanded William Joyce's original story by giving it fantastical mythologies about the forest, more development on the characters, and the supplementing the action-adventure genre in the story as Wedge envisioned. I liked the fact that Joyce worked on the script, because when you have a small story that was expanded to be more ambitious and dramatic, then it's best to have input from Joyce as he included a lot of cool and interesting plot points in the film.

For instance, Joyce modeled Mary Katherine (M.K.) very much after his own daughter; she, unfortunately, died from a brain tumor in 2010 and it was a very personal and devastating loss for him. I truly wish that this movie should've been dedicated to her memory, as it would mean much to her family and friends. She would've been very proud of the movie, her father's work on the film, and the main character in the film, Mary Katherine (M.K.).

Wedge's direction triumphed the most in the film. He came a long way from his beginnings and he wanted to make the film something special. He wanted to make this as an action-adventure epic on the scale of Ben-Hur, Star Wars, Gladiator, and the Lord of the Rings trilogy, and he succeeds it. He doesn't intend it to be cute and I'm grateful that it wasn't; previous action-adventure animated films Titan A.E. and Atlantis had intense situations with childlike supporting characters, thus leaving the films with a poorly identified targeted audience about what's a film's targeted audience and this was not the case for Epic. I liked how he handed with both the characters and actors, and his direction is ingenious and visionary. He can really handle big ambitious epic films with ingenious storytelling on this scale, even if it's an animated film. The epic spectacle is never at the expanse of the story, characters, and the heart of the story.

Epic goes to prove to people that animated films can also really handle the action-adventure genre as much as live-action films do, just like how Peter Pan, Sleeping Beauty, Akira, Atlantis: The Lost Empire, The Incredibles, and Kung Fu Panda trilogy did. With this film, Blue Sky Studios wanted to prove everyone that they can do so much more than pop culture references, cheap jokes, and unimaginative storytelling. They've not only exceeded that, they surpassed it and beyond. With this film, this is a promising launch of the new Blue Sky Studios, which has declared war on DreamWorks, Disney Animation, and Pixar.

You will be laughing, astonished, amazed, blown away, and inspired, because Epic truly stands out as one of the most surprising film experiences of the year, and could be one of the best films of the year.